Life in The Era of The Virus, +50 Terms Explained

          Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China, was where it all started. By the end of December, 2019, the city witnessed a wide spread of an unknown respiratory disease; causing pneumonia, and eventually leading to death. Weeks later, the disease spread to all different countries in the world. Actually, that was not surprising by any means, since it originally started in “The World’s Factory”; known as China. Staring from that point, the world has drastically changed, and never returned back like before.

Confusion has dominated the scene regarding the disease since then. We have heard many new words which we were not familiar with, including the name of the disease itself. Is it Coronavirus?! or Covid-19?! So, we first need to eliminate the confusion about the disease, by explaining the main concepts related to it.

• Coronavirus: Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. However, three new coronaviruses have emerged from animal reservoirs over the past two decades to cause serious and widespread illness and death.
• SARS-CoV-2: is the name of the third novel coronavirus. It causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which emerged from China in December 2019 and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020.
• Covid-19: is the name of the disease itself that is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Now that we know what we are talking about, we can go further. Recently, we have been flooded with an endless stream of news and loads of information. We have been introduced to many terms in different fields, mainly concentrated on the medical and healthcare fields of course, in addition to other related fields. This has remarkably affected our daily language, through the appearance of new terminology or circulation of previously-existing ones. In order to understand such concepts, and develop a deeper understanding of our world in the current critical moment, we have collected here the definitions of most of these terms, whether new or already existing ones. And since the crisis has affected all the aspects of human life, not only the medical field, we have listed here the terms related to main affected sectors. The below terms were classified into four main categories; medical and biological terms, economic terms, legal terms, political and administrative terms.

     Medical, Biological and Healthcare Terms

• Aerosol: Tiny particles or droplets suspended in air.

• Airborne Transmission: Airborne transmission refers to situations where droplet nuclei (residue from evaporated droplets) or dust particles containing microorganisms can remain suspended in air for long periods of time. These organisms must be capable of surviving for long periods of time outside the body and must be resistant to drying. Airborne transmission allows organisms to enter the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Fortunately, only a limited number of diseases are capable of airborne transmission.

• Antibodies: Antibody, also called immunoglobulin, a protective protein produced by the immune system in response to the presence of a foreign substance, called an antigen. Antibodies recognize and latch onto antigens in order to remove them from the body. A wide range of substances are regarded by the body as antigens, including disease-causing organisms and toxic materials such as insect venom.

• Antigen: Any substance that causes the body to make an immune response against that substance. Antigens include toxins, chemicals, bacteria, viruses, or other substances that come from outside the body. Body tissues and cells, including cancer cells, also have antigens on them that can cause an immune response. These antigens can also be used as markers in laboratory tests to identify those tissues or cells.

• Assisted Living Facilities (ALF): Assisted living facilities provide individualized health and personal care assistance in a homelike setting with an emphasis on personal dignity, autonomy, independence and privacy. Facilities can be large apartment-like settings or private residences. Services include meals, bathing, dressing, toileting and administering or supervising medication.

• Clinical Trials: Clinical trials are a type of research that studies new tests and treatments and evaluates their effects on human health outcomes. People volunteer to take part in clinical trials to test medical interventions including drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiological procedures, devices, behavioural treatments and preventive care.

– Clinical trials are carefully designed, reviewed and completed, and need to be approved before they can start. People of all ages can take part in clinical trials, including children.

– There are 4 phases of biomedical clinical trials:

Phase I studies usually test new drugs for the first time in a small group of people to evaluate a safe dosage range and identify side effects.

Phase II studies test treatments that have been found to be safe in phase I but now need a larger group of human subjects to monitor for any adverse effects.

Phase III studies are conducted on larger populations and in different regions and countries, and are often the step right before a new treatment is approved.

Phase IV studies take place after country approval and there is a need for further testing in a wide population over a longer timeframe.

• Communicable Disease/Infectious Disease/Transmissible Disease: Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi; the diseases can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases of animals that can cause disease when transmitted to humans.

• Contagion: The situation in which a disease is spread by touching someone or something.

• Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs): Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), also called life care communities, offer different levels of service in one location. Many of them offer independent housing (houses or apartments), assisted living, and skilled nursing care all on one campus. Healthcare services and recreation programs are also provided. In a CCRC, where you live depends on the level of service you need. People who can no longer live independently move to the assisted living facility or sometimes receive home care in their independent living unit. If necessary, they can enter the CCRC’s nursing home.

• Detergent: a chemical substance in the form of a powder or a liquid for removing dirt esp. from clothes or dishes.

• Direct contact transmission: occurs when there is physical contact between an infected person and a susceptible person.

• Disease Outbreak: An outbreak is a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease. An outbreak may occur in a community or geographical area, or may affect several countries. It may last for a few days or weeks, or even for several years.

• Disinfectant: a substance that contains chemicals that kill bacteria and is used especially for cleaning surfaces in toilets and kitchens.

• Epidemic: An epidemic occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people. In 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic took the lives of nearly 800 people worldwide.

• Flattening The Curve: Flattening the curve refers to community isolation measures that keep the daily number of disease cases at a manageable level for medical providers.

• Genetic Code: The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material (DNA or RNA sequences) is translated into proteins (amino acid sequences) by living cells.

• Genetic Engineering: Genetic engineering is the process of using recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology to alter the genetic makeup of an organism. Traditionally, humans have manipulated genomes indirectly by controlling breeding and selecting offspring with desired traits. Genetic engineering involves the direct manipulation of one or more genes. Most often, a gene from another species is added to an organism’s genome to give it a desired phenotype.

• Half-life: Biological half-life, i.e. the period in which the amount of substance inside the living organism is metabolized and eliminated half of its initial amount by normal biological process.

• Hand Sanitizer: Hand sanitizer, also called hand antiseptic, handrub, or hand rub, agent applied to the hands for the purpose of removing common pathogens (disease-causing organisms). Hand sanitizers typically come in foam, gel, or liquid form. Their use is recommended when soap and water are not available for hand washing or when repeated hand washing compromises the natural skin barrier (e.g., causing scaling or fissures to develop in the skin). Although the effectiveness of hand sanitizer is variable, it is employed as a simple means of infection control in a wide variety of settings, from day-care centres and schools to hospitals and health care clinics and from supermarkets to cruise ships.

• Herd immunity: Herd immunity (or community immunity) occurs when a high percentage of the community is immune to a disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness), making the spread of this disease from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and the immunocompromised) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community.

• Host: an organism that is infected with or is fed upon by a parasitic or pathogenic organism (for example, a virus, nematode, fungus). The term can also be applied, loosely, to a plant supporting an epiphyte. An animal or plant that nourishes and supports a parasite; the host does not benefit and is often harmed by the association.

• Immune response: The immune response is how your body recognizes and defends itself against bacteria, viruses, and substances that appear foreign and harmful. The immune system protects the body from possibly harmful substances by recognizing and responding to antigens. Antigens are substances (usually proteins) on the surface of cells, viruses, fungi, or bacteria. Nonliving substances such as toxins, chemicals, drugs, and foreign particles (such as a splinter) can also be antigens. The immune system recognizes and destroys, or tries to destroy, substances that contain antigens. Your body’s cells have proteins that are antigens. These include a group of antigens called HLA antigens. Your immune system learns to see these antigens as normal and usually does not react against them.

• Incubation Period: the time from exposure to the causative agent until the first symptoms develop and is characteristic for each disease agent.

• Indirect contact transmission: occurs when there is no direct human-to-human contact. Contact occurs from a reservoir to contaminated surfaces or objects, or to vectors such as mosquitoes, flies, mites, fleas, ticks, rodents or dogs.

• Intermediate Host: A secondary host or intermediate host is a host that harbors the parasite only for a short transition period, during which some developmental stage is completed.

• Isolation: separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.

• Nursing Homes/Care Facilities: Nursing homes, also called skilled nursing facilities, provide a wide range of health and personal care services. Their services focus on medical care more than most assisted living facilities. These services typically include nursing care, 24-hour supervision, three meals a day, and assistance with everyday activities. Rehabilitation services, such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy, are also available.

• Pandemic: A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. It differs from an outbreak or epidemic because it:

1. affects a wider geographical area, often worldwide.
2. infects a greater number of people than an epidemic.
3. is often caused by a new virus or a strain of virus that has not circulated among people for a long time. Humans usually have little to no immunity against it. The virus spreads quickly from person-to-person worldwide.
4. causes much higher numbers of deaths than epidemics.
5. often creates social disruption, economic loss, and general hardship.

• Pathogen: A pathogen is defined as an organism causing disease to its host, with the severity of the disease symptoms referred to as virulence. Pathogens are taxonomically widely diverse and comprise viruses and bacteria as well as unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes. Every living organism is affected by pathogens, including bacteria, which are targeted by specialized viruses called phages.

• PCR Test: Sometimes called “molecular photocopying,” the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a fast and inexpensive technique used to “amplify” – copy – small segments of DNA. Because significant amounts of a sample of DNA are necessary for molecular and genetic analyses, studies of isolated pieces of DNA are nearly impossible without PCR amplification.

• Plague: Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. The disease is transmitted between animals via their fleas and, as it is a zoonotic bacteriuma, it can also transmit from animals to humans.

• Protocol: A detailed plan of a scientific or medical experiment, treatment, or procedure. In clinical trials, it states what the study will do, how it will be done, and why it is being done. It explains how many people will be in the study, who is eligible to take part in it, what study drugs or other interventions will be given, what tests will be done and how often, and what information will be collected.

• Quarantine: a procedure that separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms.

• Second Wave: a phenomenon of infections that can develop during a pandemic. The disease infects one group of people first. Infections appear to decrease. And then, infections increase in a different part of the population, resulting in a second wave of infections.

• Social distancing: Social distancing, also called “physical distancing,” means keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home. To practice social or physical distancing:

– Stay at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people

– Do not gather in groups

– Stay out of crowded places and avoid mass gatherings

• Telemedicine: Telemedicine, also referred to as telehealth or e-medicine, is the remote delivery of healthcare services, including exams and consultations, over the telecommunications infrastructure. Telemedicine allows healthcare providers to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients without the need for an in-person visit. Patients can communicate with physicians from their homes by using their own personal technology or by visiting a dedicated telehealth kiosk. Telemedicine can be classified into three main categories:

1. Interactive telemedicine/telehealth – allows physicians and patients to communicate in real time. Such sessions can be conducted in the patient’s home or at a designated medical kiosk. Interactions include telephone conversations or the use of video conferencing software that complies with HIPAA regulations.
2. Remote patient monitoring – also known as telemonitoring, allows patients to be monitored in their homes using mobile devices that collect data about temperature, blood sugar levels, blood pressure or other vital signs.
3. Store-and-forward – also known as asynchronous telemedicine, lets one healthcare provider share patient information, such as lab results, with another healthcare provider.

• Throat Swab Culture: A throat swab culture is a laboratory test that is done to identify germs that may cause infection in the throat. It is most often used to diagnose strep throat.

• Vaccine: A vaccine is a type of medicine that trains the body’s immune system so that it can fight a disease it has not come into contact with before. Vaccines are designed to prevent disease, rather than treat a disease once you have caught it. Vaccines enable the body to make the right sort of antibodies to fight a particular disease.

• Virus: Viruses are infectious agents of small size and simple composition that can multiply only in living cells of animals, plants, or bacteria. The name is from a Latin word meaning “slimy liquid” or “poison.” Viruses are microscopic parasites, generally much smaller than bacteria. They lack the capacity to thrive and reproduce outside of a host body. Predominantly, viruses have a reputation for being the cause of contagion. Viruses are the smallest of all the microbes. They are said to be so small that 500 million rhinoviruses (which cause the common cold) could fit on to the head of a pin. They are unique because they are only alive and able to multiply inside the cells of other living things. The cell they multiply in is called the host cell. A virus is made up of a core of genetic material, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protective coat called a capsid which is made up of protein. Sometimes the capsid is surrounded by an additional spikey coat called the envelope. Viruses are capable of latching onto host cells and getting inside them.

    

     Economic and Manufacturing Terms

• 3D Printing: Three-dimensional (3-D) printing is an additive manufacturing process that creates a physical object from a digital design. The process works by laying down thin layers of material in the form of liquid or powdered plastic, metal or cement, and then fusing the layers together.

• Bailout: A bailout is when a business, an individual, or a government provides money and/or resources (also known as a capital injection) to a failing company. These actions help to prevent the consequences of that business’s potential downfall which may include bankruptcy and default on its financial obligations. Businesses and governments may receive a bailout which may take the form of a loan, the purchasing of bonds, stocks or cash infusions, and may require the recused party to reimburse the support, depending upon the terms. Bailouts are typically only for companies or industries whose bankruptcies may have a severe adverse impact on the economy, not just a particular market sector.

• Business Failure: closure or cessation of business activity that results in a loss to its creditors. Firm that stops working due to lack of sales or profit, or retirement or death of its principal without leaving any liabilities is not classified as a failure.

• Economic Recession: A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.

• Hoarding: to collect large amounts of something and keep it for yourself, often in a secret place.

• Layoff: Layoff is the discontinuation of employment and suspension of pay of any regular or probationary employee:

1. Because of lack of work
2. Because of lack of funds, or
3. Because reorganization has resulted in a duplication of positions or functions or otherwise made a position unnecessary.

• Pay Cut: A pay cut is a reduction in an employee’s salary. Pay cuts are often made to reduce layoffs while saving the company money during a difficult economic period. A pay cut may be temporary or permanent, and may or may not come with a reduction in responsibilities. Some pay cuts also affect an employee’s raises, bonuses, and benefits.

• Shortage: situation where the quantity available or supplied in a market falls short of the quantity demanded or required at a given time or price.

• Supply Chain: The supply chain includes all the activities, people, organizations, information, and resources required to move a product from inception to the customer. Supply chain management is the process of integrating the supply and demand management, not only within the organization, but also across all the various members and channels in the supply chain so they work together most efficiently and effectively.

   

    Legal Terms

• Bill: Draft of a proposed law presented to the legislature for consideration.

• Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES): The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed by Congress with overwhelming, bipartisan support and signed into law by President Trump on March 27th, 2020.  This over $2 trillion economic relief package delivers on the Trump Administration’s commitment to protecting the American people from the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19. The CARES Act provides fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserve jobs for our American industries.

 

     Political and Administrative Terms

• Curfew: a rule that everyone must stay at home between particular times, usually at night, especially during a war or a period of political trouble.

• Key Worker/Essential Employee: an employee whose duties are of such a nature as to require the employee to report for work or remain at the work site to continue agency operations during an emergency situation.

• Lockdown: a situation in which people are not allowed to enter or leave a building or area freely because of an emergency.

• State of Emergency: an extreme condition caused by severe weather or war in which a government allows itself special powers.

• Travel Ban (Flight Ban): a law preventing people from travelling somewhere, especially preventing a particular person or group from entering a particular country.

 

      Misc.

• Distance Learning/Distance Education/E-learning/Online Learning: Distance learning, also called distance education, e-learning, and online learning, form of education in which the main elements include physical separation of teachers and students during instruction and the use of various technologies to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication.

   Can you come out with more related terms to be added to the list? Leave your contribution in a comment.

   

    References:

• Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)
• Biology Online
• BusinessDictionary
• Cambridge University Press
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH), University of Toronto (U of T)
• Division of Public Health (DPH), Delaware Health and Social Services (DHSS)
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Investopedia
• Live Science
• Maryland Department of Health
• MedicineNet
• MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine (NLM)
• Michigan State University
• Microbiology Society
• National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
• National Conference of State Legislatures
• National Human Genome Research Institute Home (NHGRI), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Health (NIH)
• SearchHealthIT
• Seattle Department of Human Resources
• ScienceDaily
• Texas Health and Human Services
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Vaccine Knowledge Project, University of Oxford
• World Health Organization (WHO)